Kidneyversary: 16 Years and Counting

In case you’ve only recently discovered this blog, you should know that I donated my kidney to my adult son, Paul, on June 27, 2006 (he shared his reflections in a 2019 post). This week we arrived at the Sweet 16 mark! Both of my kidneys, by the way, are still going strong, faithfully doing their job–just in different bodies.

The Comeback Kidney, as “he” was named, is healthy, and Paul’s overall kidney function is stable. Mine, happily, is perfectly normal, particularly considering that people’s kidney function declines with age, and I just turned 74. The other important measure is for creatinine–to show how well the kidney is filtering toxins–and I’m proud to say that mine is an impressive .84 (under 1.1 is normal for women).

So, 16 years out from donation, even though I’m a lot older than I was then, I’m very healthy and active (read: I walk and hike). I was never athletic, but lots of living donors are. If you’re a potential donor and have any concerns about donation cramping your lifestyle, learn about the Kidney Donor Athletes. They enjoy ultra-marathons, triathlons, and in March they celebrated World Kidney Day by climbing to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak!

Our kidney celebrations are a bit more mundane. We went out to dinner to honor the occasion, as we do every year at this time. (The notable exception was, of course, 2020, when we “celebrated” the best we could in our front yard.)

For related posts and information on my new book, The Insider’s Guide to Living Kidney Donation, be sure to explore the rest of my website.

World Kidney Day Should Last All Year

Like so many things that receive a designated day or a month of honor, kidneys deserve our attention every day. I’ve had a healthy respect for them ever since my son’s kidneys began to fail soon after he graduated from college and he had to start dialysis. Dialysis is a remarkable process, removing the toxins from the blood, managing a delicate balance of fluids and nutrients, keeping blood pressure in check, and so much more.

Dialysis can be a life saver, and I certainly wish there were an equivalent for people whose liver is failing. But even with all the bells ‘n’ whistles (bells really do go off in a dialysis clinic when something goes wrong), dialysis can achieve only about 20% of kidney function. Meaning, not only is it not a cure for chronic kidney disease, it’s not even a great long-term treatment for most patients. It simply buys time until a new kidney—whether from a deceased donor or, if you’re fortunate, a living one—is available. (For people who have other serious health conditions, a transplant may not be possible.)

Although plenty of people fortunately do well on dialysis for many years, the average outcomes with a transplant are far better. The 5-year survival rate for someone undergoing dialysis is about 35% versus well over 90% for a kidney transplant.

On this World Kidney Day (March 11), remember that kidneys are pretty special (even if, admittedly, they’re not as cute as the little purple guy with me in the photo) and shouldn’t be taken for granted. If you don’t know your kidney function, ask your healthcare provider. If you haven’t had the lab work lately, make an appointment for a check-up. The adage about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure couldn’t be more apt when talking about kidney disease.

Happy World Kidney Day–with a shout-out to women!

March 12 is World Kidney Day, and it seems fitting to continue our theme of women and kidneys (two of my favorite subjects). In a recent post, I pointed out that neither gets the respect and attention they/we deserve. It’s mostly because most people just don’t know a whole lot about what they do: in the case of women, we hold up half the sky, as the African proverb says. And kidneys do much the same for the body, quietly keeping it functioning as it should, balancing nutrients, eliminating dangerous toxins, regulating fluids and salt content, promoting bone health. I could go on.

Now how do I tie this back to women, you ask? Let’s consider living kidney donors. Not surprisingly, most are women. When I participated in setting the Guinness World Record for largest gathering of living donors in April 2018, it was clear that the vast majority of us donors there were women. Now, it’s tempting to say that’s all due to our natural empathy and nurturing instincts. I do believe that’s partly responsible, but I know it’s more complicated than that.

For one thing, donating a kidney, like any major surgery, usually entails taking off work for at least a couple of weeks, if you have a sedentary job as I did (editor/writer). If you’re a laborer, however, because of a restriction on lifting anything over 10 pounds for about the first 6 weeks after surgery, that obviously could mean a lot longer interruption.

Donors who are lucky enough to have sufficient paid sick leave (or any at all) don’t have to worry about lost pay. But for anyone who doesn’t, that’s a major road block to being a live donor. The reality is that, in a lot of families, it’s still harder to get by without the man’s earnings. The National Living Donor Assistance Center has been offering much-needed financial help with travel and lodging costs for some donors who need to travel to their recipient’s transplant center. It’s a wonderful program, but it hasn’t covered lost pay and other uncovered expenses. Now there’s a plan to significantly expand that assistance to cover a donor’s lost pay and major “incidental” expenses like child care and elder care. But it needs a major boost in funding from the House Appropriations Committee. Please contact your representative and tell him or her to get behind this important effort. Helping living donors helps to save lives.

World Kidney Day!

I’m wearing orange today to spread awareness of kidneys: the body’s unsung heroes! They regulate fluid levels, balance nutrients, produce urine, eliminate toxins, make red blood cells, promote bone health, regulate blood pressure, and so much more. Now do you see why I say they don’t get the attention they deserve? If you don’t already know your kidney function, PLEASE make an appointment to have your kidneys checked–it’s just a simple blood test. Thirty million Americans have chronic kidney disease, and most of them have no idea. [In the picture with me is my friend “the Comeback Kidney.” That’s what we named the kidney I donated to my son, which enabled HIS comeback 12 and a half years ago.]